


A Worthy Challenger

by Arichuloco



Series: How to Grow Butterflies in Your Belly [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Camping, Comfort No Hurt, Drabble, F/M, Flirty Link, Fluff, Food, Humor, Mutual Pining, Post BotW, Post canon, Romance, Sexual Tension, Vine reference, but innocent, but let's keep it lowkey, do people still use the word drabble these days?, fruit cake cameo, goddesses they're so thirsty for each other, meme reference, playful banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-31
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25619851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arichuloco/pseuds/Arichuloco
Summary: Link never imagined that his greatest opponent to win Zelda's affections would be food. But there's a first time for everything, he supposed.
Relationships: Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Series: How to Grow Butterflies in Your Belly [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1857070
Comments: 13
Kudos: 80





	A Worthy Challenger

**Author's Note:**

> I've always liked to imagine that Link and Zelda have a very playful relationship, so I couldn't resist making another fanfic where they're just fooling around haha. I just love to see the babies happy :')

The campfire crackled soothingly into the night, channeling the soft beat of the evening while crickets stridulated in the background. Link hummed a casual tune in contentment as he rested another log beside a blackened block, all of its fuel spent on cooking the dinner he was just finishing up with Zelda. Gourmet meat on top of rice. Link missed the glorious display of his meal just before he dug into it.

He could recall it now: perfectly cooked to medium-rare, warm and glistening with butter that he basted in the cooking pot, and when he would cut into it the middle would still be slightly pink.

That pink part was the good stuff. Tender and succulent. It wasn’t pink because of blood, that’s what he knew. He wouldn’t be surprised if Zelda probably knew what it was called. Maybe he’d ask her later.

Link closed his eyes and inhaled deeply into the air, a content feeling blooming in his chest as he imagined the smell still lingering in the atmosphere, mixing along with the smoky scent of the campfire. He didn’t even care about the fact that he could feel Zelda’s piercing gaze following the column of his neck. Like she was a wild animal about to go in for the kill, sinking her teeth into his jugular. And Link tried really hard to not care about how much he wouldn’t have minded that.

Heat prickled at the back of his neck, traveling to his cheeks. Obviously, he wasn’t doing a very good job.

He swallowed.

It was apparent that Zelda didn’t feel the same tension between them as he did, because instead of the attack he’d been imagining fantasizing, she opted for poking his neck with a very abrupt jab of her finger. Link jolted out of his moment, his eyes wide with surprise at the sudden proximity of her face hovering close to his. She hadn’t made a single noise moving towards him from her resting log. Her eyes held the promise of mischief, but the corners of Zelda’s mouth were downturned into a frown.

“Are you challenging me?”

“Zelda,” he whispered. Link hated how breathless he sounded, but her eyes were almost glistening gold in the firelight. The green of her irises glowed subtly in the darkness of the night, slight traces of Hylia’s Blessing beckoning him forward. It was hard to not react the way that he was. Who could blame him really?

He blinked rapidly until the haze dissipated from his system. He didn’t catch what she said. “Wait, what?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes, deciding to straighten up from her leaning position to stand haughtily in front of him. With the fire illuminating her from behind, she almost looked like a force to be reckoned with. Zelda made her displeasure for his slow uptake known. She glared at him.

“You’re challenging me. You want to do this? Okay. Alright.” She set her hands on her hips and huffed. “Let’s do this. I can take you on.”

Needless to say, Link was very confused. Zelda still stood dramatically in front of him, fighting a smile from blooming on her face. Her eyes were closed and her head upturned a little to the right, as if she was one of those stuck up nobles that she complained about from Before. There was an air of pomp around her and Link was briefly reminded of Revali. If Zelda was trying to play an evening skit for him where she was the Rito, Link thought she was doing a spectacular job. But when she opened one eye to conspicuously peek at his reaction Link laughed at the ridiculousness of it all.

“What? Zelda, what? What’s going on? What do you mean? All I did was breathe!”

“Well, your breathing sounded particularly accusing.” Ah, yes. That did sound like a thing Revali would say too. “So I have no choice but to call you out on it. You’re challenging me for the last piece of fruit cake!”

Fruit cake?

The _fruit cake_?

Was that what this was all about?

Goddesses and Hylia above.

“Zelda there’s still three slices of fruit cake left.”

“Yeah, that’s The Last Piece of Fruit Cake.” She said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

At this Link couldn’t help but give into a fit of giggles, doubling over and holding his sides to settle his still full stomach. Zelda’s facade folded and her face broke into a grin at the sound of his laughter. When Link finally recovered, he met her mirthful gaze. The blues of the sky locking with fields of green. “Yeah, sure. Why not?”

That sent Zelda’s eyebrows shooting up in surprise. “Wait, really?” She blinked at Link, taking in his lopsided smirk. A blush met her cheeks and warmth pooled in her gut, something that replaced the butterflies that used to flutter uncontrollably in her stomach. He shrugged and nodded.

“Why the shock?”

Zelda chuckled nervously and reached up behind her to fiddle with the shortened hair at the base of her neck. “Oh. Well. I honestly didn’t think this far. I thought that you were just going to roll your eyes at my antics and say yes just to humour me.”

Link gasped dramatically and pressed a hand to his chest. “You slight me, Your Highness! You didn’t think I’d actually fight for my share of dessert?”

“Just to humour me!” she emphasized. “Link, we both know I’ll be full after just one slice.”

“Don’t you dare lie to my face. My cooking is way too good for _‘just one slice’_. You ask for at least half of my fruit cake.”

“Wow,” she laughed. “Humble much?” Zelda paused for a while, and then made a sour face. “But you’re right and I’m not happy about that.”

Link gave her a pointed look. _See?_ “So? What’s your challenge?”

“Uhhh…rock, paper, scissors?”

“Hmm. Weak.” There was a contemplative pause before Link’s head jolted up with a roguish grin spread across his face. He leaned forward onto his elbows and Zelda had to resist taking a step back from his wolfish demeanour. “What about a game of chicken?”

Matched with his unexpected reaction, Zelda’s face flushed at the casual suggestion of such a risqué game. The warmth of her blush traveled down her face until it matched the heat of the campfire blazing behind her. Thank the Goddesses that she survived Before with sufficient court training because Zelda managed to give Link the most successful deadpan expression she could have ever mustered at her current state.

There were much higher things to prioritize. 

“Nice try, but no dice.”

Link shrugged nonchalantly with a coy smile, but when he looked away Zelda’s eyes followed the subtle way his throat flexed downwards. She felt her jaw clench tightly. 

“I shot my shot.” Oh Goddesses, this boy. “What about archery? You’re just as good as me at that.”

“It’s too dark and too late.”

“What? Afraid that I’ll beat you and you’ll get _zero_ fruit cake?

“Oh, yes. Link, you seem to underestimate just how terrible my aim is in the dark. You might wonder why there’s an arrow sticking out the toes of your boot, and I’ll have to tell you that I thought you were a tree.”

Link pouted. “I thought you liked me, Zellie.”

“I do,” Zelda admitted with a somber nod. “But I _love_ fruit cake.”

At that, Link’s mouth flattened into a line and his eyes turned pensive as he looked deeply at the flames behind Zelda's legs. His eyebrows furrowed. Zelda watched and waited for a reply, but Link stayed silent as his gaze intensified in concentration. Apprehension settled in her stomach.

“Link?”

“I wish to decline your challenge.”

Zelda blinked in confusion. “Wai—huh?”

“I have a larger opponent now.” And then Link suddenly turned his head to scowl at his enchanted pouch settled on the innocent Epona, silently watching their silly conversation. “The fruit cake,” he spat.

She couldn’t help it. Zelda chortled and threw herself down, wrapping her arms around Link. His hands instantly caught her around her waist, breaking character and joining her with a chuckle.

“Worry not, Sir Knight! Just give me the opportunity and I’ll fight Mr. Cake in your honor!”

Link eyed his companion suspiciously. “…And how do you plan to do that, Princess?”

“I’ll eat him.”

“Ah, yes. I should’ve known."

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! You've reached the end of the fanfic! Thank you for reading ❤️ I really hope you liked it
> 
> I'm making this into a Zelink oneshot series since I have a bunch of stories that somewhat relate to each other but can still be read as standalones with no specific chronological order. I think it could be really interesting to make c:
> 
> Anyways, hope y'all are doing well! See you later hopefully sometime soon 💙💚


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